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And The Geek Shall Inherit The Earth?
Jul. 17th, 2012 09:57 amI'm not sure if my memory is faulty or not, but it seemed like there were a lot more religious protesters at SDCC this year. They're regulated to doing their sign-carrying across a fairly wide street from the convention center, but since I've outgrown my taste for the food available at the food court, venturing outdoors is something I do. Mixed in among the protestors are advertisers giving out freebies. Comics, cards, etc. The two most brilliant advertisements I was given were Bates Motel soap (handing out soap at a convention! sheer genius!) and Carrie matches. There are also amusing cardboard counter-signs promoting Cthulu and FSM. But the thing I liked absolute best was the handouts-girl who was cheerfully saying "Stan Lee 3:16. With great power comes great responsibility."
Thinking on all that, it has occurred to me that if the protestors are truly interested in converting the geekish masses, they need to learn to tailor the marketing to the audience. Instead of signs saying athiests go to hell, which only put up people's backs and make them hostile, why not, say, have signs with quotes from a couple of the Indiana Jones movies? "The penitent man is humble; he kneels before God" etc. Or riff on Star Wars, or Avatar, or Narnia. Something that the audience will like, identify, and engage with. I don't really go with the whole "Superman died for your sins" thing (IIRC, nothing of the sort was involved in that event), but I'm sure there's plenty of speculative fiction that could be mined for appropriate pithy quotes.
As it was, I doubt their whole weekend of energetic protest and in-your-face sign-waving won the protestors a single convert.
(As a footnote, I have NOTHING against Christians. I have people I love and admire who adhere to that faith. And I do not count myself as an athiest. Yet I simply find it extremely rude that someone who doesn't even know me feels it imperative to tell me that I'm going to hell.)
Thinking on all that, it has occurred to me that if the protestors are truly interested in converting the geekish masses, they need to learn to tailor the marketing to the audience. Instead of signs saying athiests go to hell, which only put up people's backs and make them hostile, why not, say, have signs with quotes from a couple of the Indiana Jones movies? "The penitent man is humble; he kneels before God" etc. Or riff on Star Wars, or Avatar, or Narnia. Something that the audience will like, identify, and engage with. I don't really go with the whole "Superman died for your sins" thing (IIRC, nothing of the sort was involved in that event), but I'm sure there's plenty of speculative fiction that could be mined for appropriate pithy quotes.
As it was, I doubt their whole weekend of energetic protest and in-your-face sign-waving won the protestors a single convert.
(As a footnote, I have NOTHING against Christians. I have people I love and admire who adhere to that faith. And I do not count myself as an athiest. Yet I simply find it extremely rude that someone who doesn't even know me feels it imperative to tell me that I'm going to hell.)
